I liked it a lot even though the tone and the "spirit" of the story are a bit more sad, more melancholy than what I usually enjoy (I don't know the right words to express this, I guess I would call her book thoughtful and pensive).
Then again, the main events of the time the book is set in are not conducive to heroic optimism.

Thank you for reminding me of this, I will look for her other other books now.

Does anyone have recommendations for good historical fiction? I don't have a whole lot of exposure to the genre, but I'd like to try some more. I've read a lot of Bernard Cornwell's stuff, and enjoyed most of it. I really liked his Warlord Chronicles, which admittedly is a mixture of fantasy and history. I also enjoyed the Saxon Stories, but his writing has gotten rather stale on me. It all seems a bit formulaic now--he fleshes out the era in his books well, but it's like each book is the same story with the same characters, just in a different time period.

I've also read a little bit of Patrick O'Brien, which in the long run I enjoyed, but had to will myself forward in a lot of the places in the few books I read.

Any recommendations? I'm not affixed to any particular time period, I just like the feeling of history coming alive and being immersed in the story.

joe r lansdale has some pretty good depression era books from east texas area... try edge of dark water, the bottoms and all the earth thrown to the sky

I'm currently reading Sharon Kay Penman's 'When Christ and the Saints Slept'. Follows the tumultuous times of life in England after Henry I with Stephen and Maude fighting over the throne. A pretty good read. There are more in the series after this one that I'll be exploring.

I'm currently reading Sharon Kay Penman's 'When Christ and the Saints Slept'. Follows the tumultuous times of life in England after Henry I with Stephen and Maude fighting over the throne. A pretty good read. There are more in the series after this one that I'll be exploring.

This is the same time period that Ellis Peters's "Brother Cadfael" mysteries are set in, which are also well worth reading. Unfortunately they don't appear to be legally available as eBooks.

You're welcome!
It's a Viking adventure trilogy. I have Blood Eye (first book in the Raven trilogy) in paperback which I've read about a year ago. It's more of a historical action adventure series. I really enjoyed it. The books starts off slow but don't be discouraged by that when you start reading, because the story gets really good after a couple of chapters. It contains explicit violence but despite that a real page turner.

I'll echo the recommendation for Dorothy Dunnett. I've enjoyed her Lymond Chronicles so much that I'm reading the series for the third time.

Thanks for this recommendation (to both of you). I have recently finished the first installment and liked it very much (after I got into it). The complexity of the story reminded me of Dumas a little bit. The tone is completely different, there are some really funny scenes in there, too.

Another vote for Ken Follett. Pillars of the Earth is one of my all time favorite books, although the sequel World Without End didn't do as much for me.

Currently reading and enjoying very much, his Fall of Giants, which tells about the life prior and during world war one. Plenty of historical talk while still being a fictional story. I believe he had 8 historians to check out facts on the book before it was released - I for one am learning tons about the WWI time period which I almost didn't know anything about before!